A touching photograph has emerged showing two young brothers visiting their father’s grave at Arlington National Cemetery for the first time.

The heart-melting picture shows Mason and Mylan, aged eight and four, wrapped up in a blanket in front of the headstone of their dad, Staff Sgt Alfred Brazel, who died of cancer at the age of 37 on July 31.

Here’s more:

The tender moment was captured by the boys’ mother Kait, 29, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, last month.

It was the first time the youngsters had visited their father’s grave since he died of rectal cancer.

‘Mylan said he felt like he could feel his daddy, and he wanted to take a nap with him,’ Mrs Brazel told ABC News.

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She added that her sons also used the visit to talk to their father about what they had been up to.

‘Mylan shared with him how he had earned his uniform and belt in his fight class, and how he went to a Halloween party and won a cake,’ she said.

‘Mason told him how he got a trophy for his breaststroke in his swim competition. They updated him on their lives.’

Kait said the boys, who are aged eight and five, have ‘not once cried’ about their father’s death.

She said: ‘I tell them, ‘We are here as tools for God. God knew that Daddy was a really strong person, and there were some people God couldn’t reach unless he used Daddy as a tool.

‘That’s how we went with it and how we justified it. That’s what we believe.’